Skinny, buff, bodacious, deformed; we all have a preference on body type and we can all agree that the vanilla Skyrim body is somewhat…lacking, in certain areas for females. Behold our lord and saviour: Caliente; a talented programmer that developed an amazing toolkit so we could alter the Skyrim female body to whatever we want! At first glance it is clear how much love and effort was put into the making of the mod: High resolution custom mesh, altered mesh weights for animation, ‘high-res normal map to fit the body’, 3 main options for body shapes (plus a spectrum of options with toolkit), neck-seams fixes, etc. Caliente had thought of everything for the mod, from modders creating armours, poses, and body types; preference for body change restricted to the player character, user-friendly design and applications, and much more. 

It is with great pride to announce that Caliente and her works would be integrating with us at the Skyrim Romance website. To officially introduce her to everyone we had set up an interview with the amazing mod author.

What made you want to develop a mod in Skyrim?

“I’d played other modded games previously, Fallout 3, Oblivion, and a few others, and had tinkered with making my own though never published them. When Skyrim came out, I was loving the world and game, but started missing some of the modded enhancements pretty quickly. Specifically, for me, I found the vanilla outfits available in the game to be fairly ugly and low quality. So, I set out to make a few prettier outfits… but ended up getting mired in the body mod aspect, which was a necessary foundation. Never really got around to making outfits!”

Why did you make CBBE?

“The body beneath the clothes in Skyrim actually wasn’t too bad, though it was pretty bulky and ‘boxy’ for elegant outfits I wanted to wear. So, I tried to create a prettier body mesh, initially intending it to be mostly a sort of tailor dummy for creating clothes and armour. I ended up getting that done a bit quicker than anyone else, and put up the body on its own so people could use it, hoping that others might make outfits that I liked too! Regrettably, the proportions I used were rather silly, intended to be the ‘extreme’ size so clothing would look good for the range of character customization, but those settings ended up being the default setting for most people until I got customization working. The original name for the mod was Caliente’s Big Bottom Edition, in fact, in reference to the plentiful proportions, but was later renamed to Beautiful Bodies instead.”

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Did you have any inspirations before or during the production of the mod?

“Some of the body mods and clothes from other games were what I had in mind while making CBBE, especially some of the gorgeous outfits I enjoyed in Oblivion. But I had always been a little annoyed at how difficult it was to customize the shape of those body mods to fit what I wanted, so I was very inspired to make something customizable that could fit a range of tastes. I definitely spent too much time comparing what I was making to those other body mods, which meant I probably didn’t spend enough time thinking about good proportions”

How did you plan and produce CBBE? Did you have a group of programmers to help out? Did you plan the toolkit before or after the publication? Etc.

“It was totally ad-libbed from the start. I wanted clothes, but first I needed a body, so I made that. That got popular, and people wanted lots of customization options, so I spent lots of time in Blender (at the time) making different shapes. That wasn’t really sustainable, so I took some time and whipped together the original Bodyslide tool. By then, people had started making outfits, all of which were made for the odd default proportions, and I wanted to convert them, so I added Outfit Studio into the mix. Fortunately, I had some very helpful community members that took on more and more responsibility as my free time dwindled. For that, I can’t thank Jeir and Ousnius enough (They still maintain the mod very diligently and well!) So, overall, I was really playing catch-up the entire time!”

How did you start programming/modding?

“I’ve been programming since I was quite young, always with an eye toward making games. Not having anyone able to help with that meant I also spent a lot of time learning various art tools and techniques. Making games is a dream I’ve never been able to actually reach, but modding gets pretty close. I had never really done much with it beyond making a few things for myself, before rushing headlong into the Skyrim modding scene.”

What’s next for you? Any mods planned out? Will you make mods for Elder Scrolls 6 if it comes out with mod-support? Or is it done for the moment?

“When I’m playing games, I often think about how I might be able to make something better. Sometimes I even open up the game data files and see how hard it might be to “fix” some things. But, recently, my time has been very limited, so nothing really has begun. For the most part, almost everyone makes more interesting mods than me anyway, so it’s great to enjoy those things. My great interest currently (and for a while now) has been to create a game of my own, though that’s a fairly impossible task for one person! As for the future, I’m open to the idea of doing more modding for games like ES6, though I really hope the body starts out good so I can make pretty clothes instead! :)”

Is there anything you’d like to say to people that wants to pursue modding/programming/game developing?

“Go for it, of course. Learning to program is a fantastic skill, making games is a fun and exciting way to learn it! Art of all kinds is incredibly rewarding as well, and being able to do both means you never have to ask anyone for help. It’s not easy, there’s a vast array of interrelated skills and techniques to master, some of which are in the “secret dark arts” category, so it’s tough from every angle. But, all that effort is absolutely worth it. Modding is a wonderful way to step into the world, learn a ton, and get to enjoy seeing people experience your contributions! And of course, if your goal is to work in the games industry, a successful mod project can be an excellent addition to a portfolio or resume!”

Blogger Arakhiin
Editor [RG] Ashe
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